


Always the protector

by CandidCuriosity



Series: Bad days [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Under the Red Hood
Genre: Angst, Brothers, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Protectiveness, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 21:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5306576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CandidCuriosity/pseuds/CandidCuriosity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick Grayson was not much for swearing, he had always though that cracking a joke or go about a bad situation with a smile was a much better approach than swearing or threats in general. Nightwing was not known for his verbal threats; actions speak louder than words so to say and Dick had the distinct feeling that if he did not joke around and get his little brothers to laugh, no one would. All in all Dick does not swear much in any situation, in any situation not involving Jason that is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always the protector

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: the characters belong to DC comics  
> I apologize for any or all grammatical errors in this text.
> 
> So this is "the weight of it" from Dick's POV!

Dick Grayson was not much for swearing, he had always though that cracking a joke or go about a bad situation with a smile was a much better approach than swearing or threats in general. Nightwing was not known for his verbal threats; actions speak louder than words so to say and Dick had the distinct feeling that if he did not joke around and get his little brothers to laugh, no one would. All in all Dick does not swear much in any situation, in any situation not involving Jason that is.

Jason and Dick had been working on this one big case, this huge human trafficking ring, for weeks and when the solution was just within reach, and when Dick could finally see himself taking a break and get some sleep for once, Jason let him down.

Jason was going to meet up with him and Tim and relay the final piece of information he had gathered, on this specific bad guy they needed to take down, and the Red Hood just did not show up. If it had only been about missing a meeting that would have been fine, it was the lack of contact that was irritating and though Dick did not want to openly admit it was worrisome. The Red Hood was known to break of communications at times and go away for a while only to come back like nothing had happened. But never during such a crucial face of the mission, in fact Jason had never failed to deliver the information he had promised to find. And yes that worried dick, but damn Jason’s absence had completely destroyed the plan and any prospects of a break. It had been Dick’s case from the beginning and he really wanted to see it through. So his sleeping schedule was shit, the presence of healthy food was nonexistent and he had deliberately been avoiding Alfred because he was so overworked it had started to show in the shadows under his eyes.

So dick was angry and tired and fuck if Jason does not pick up the phone any time soon he would go through all of the Gotham underground, and knowing Jason, half of Hong Kong’ crime syndicates to find him. Because he needed to be angry at his oldest little brother, he needed to know why Jason had failed to show up so he could scold him, Dick needed to know that Jason was alright. Despite everything the Red Hood was family and Nightwing refuses to just let him go, because as long as there was no communication from Jason, for all Dick knows his brother could be lying in a hole in the ground. Again.

The first day Dick had been too angry to call more than once without getting an answer. The second day he admitted to be worried and he had contacted Barbara to see if she had had any contact with the second robin turned vigilante, only to hear that she had actually also tried to track Jason without any luck. On the third day Richard Grayson was scared and had begun to methodically go through all of Jason’s known safe-houses. There were a lot of them. He had also adopted a strategy of calling Jason’s cell, which was still on, every fifteen minutes. Which was not an exaggeration mind you; Dick only really, really needed Jason to pick up the damn phone!

 Damien told him he was being irrational and reasoned that Jason had a history of disappearances and was overall unreliable. Tim thought he was overacting and was sleep deprived, which Tim totally was too. Bruce was occupied with some sort of dispute in Wayne industries and Dick had not seen him in the manor at all for the last week, at least Bruce was visible in the media.

The sun was about to set on the third day when it happened, Jason answered his phone.         

“Hello?” Jason’s voice sounded awful and that one word sent chills along dick’s spine because something was really wrong with his little brother. 

“Jason! Shit, do you know how many times we have called you?” it came out in one breath because the relief of getting a response was marginally greater than his fear.

That was until Jason failed to answer him back.  

 “Jason where are you? I can’t trace your cell and you won’t pick it up, did you forget that we were supposed to meet up three days ago!” damn Jason’s paranoia and untraceable phones and way too many crappy safe-houses. Something was building in his chest when the only thing that could be heard over the line was shallow breaths. The panic was just under the surface when he talked next.

 “Jay! Answer me right now, you are freaking me out!” he could hear how loud his voice sounded, “Have you been kidnapped?  Is something wrong what happened?”

“I’m, I’m not kidnapped. I just, something came up alright? Nothing I can’t handle” Dick stilled in the dimly lit apartment near the docks that he was standing in. The realization of what was wrong hit him like tidal wave, Jason’s voice sounded _weak_ and Jason, the Red Hood, the robin who died on the job and got better, neverever showed anyone any weaknesses. Unless he wanted you to see it or was _dying._   

“You don’t sound okay”

His brother goes quiet on the other side on the line, and the silence that follows is what Dick’s nightmares are made of

“Jay-bird? Hold on okay? I’m coming to get you, do you hear me? Jay? Jason!”

The silence continued on the other side and Dick’s sleep deprived brain could only come up with one course of action and that was panic. ‘Couse shit, shit, shit Jason was not answering anymore and who knows how many safe-houses he had left?

“Barbara! I have Jason on the phone can you track it now?” dick hurriedly got out as he ran over the roof tops in one of Gotham’s more shabby parts.

“I’m trying, give me a second” he could hear Oracle type away at her keyboard, “do you want me to call for back up?” Dick realized with a shock that Barbra sounded worried.

“No, just give me an address” he sighed as he stood at the edge of a building, “I got this Babs, don’t worry” always the fixer, always the defender of his siblings’ emotions, the protector.

Shit in that moment the urge of lying down, curl into a ball and not get up for a long, long time was so strong dick had to stop and take a deep breath. This was not the time, not the time, not the

Then when was the time?

“Dick? Richard! Are you still there? I got a location” he had drifted for a bit, leaving himself wide open in the slum of Gotham, what is Batman could see him now? He was slipping.

“Tell me where Jason is”

 

Dick burst through the door, another crappy apartment, in a crappy neighborhood, in this crappy reality, now where the fuck is his brother?

When Dick gets to the bedroom its dark, the light is out and it smells like the door has not been opened in days. Dick takes two more steps into the room before he sees his little brother. Jason is curled up under the covers of his bed still holding the cell, and he is barely breathing.

Within seconds Dick is centimeters from his little brother’s face, half in half outside the bed, and his fingers are in Jason’s hair tuning his head because Jason has begun to hyperventilate and he is not looking at his older brother, he is not looking at _anything._

Dick drags Jason into his arms, because Jason is never supposed to look this lost, this broken. But he is not broken, if there’s one thing Dick knows about Jason it is that his little brother might have died, but he never broke.

Dick is talking about everything and nothing only to get the man in his arms to respond, to come back because _god dammit Jason don’t do this to me_  

And just like that he could _feel_ the precise moment Jason started to breathe again, relaxing into Dick’s arms.

Dick stayed with Jason for the rest of the night, they fell asleep like that, Dick from physical as well as emotional exhaustion, and Jason with an overwhelming feeling of relief from finally feeling safe again.        

**Author's Note:**

> Second fic! Yay  
> Thanks for reading and leaving kubos!


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